A heroic Ryanair passenger has described how he acted as ‘security’ on a horrific flight from the UK to Lanzarote.
Stuart Wilson, 52, said he rushed to help after a 6ft 3in drunk man woke up and “went completely berserk” on the Ryanair flight from Manchester Airport to the Spanish island on July 1.
He said the drunk man, who was sitting in an aisle seat next to his girlfriend, knocked her glasses off her head and repeatedly punched the overhead bins, ceiling, armrests and the seat in front of him.
“This guy was screaming, calling his girlfriend ass***, a wimp, aw***e. He kept calling her aw***e,” a shocked Mr Wilson told the Irish Independent.
He added that the woman’s friends, who had been drinking and vaping during the flight, “gave her more vodka in an attempt to calm her down.”
Stuart Wilson, 52, said he rushed to help after a 6ft 3in drunk man woke up and ‘went bananas’ on the Ryanair flight from Manchester Airport to the Spanish island on July 1 (file photo of Ryanair plane)
The farmer, from Dunfanaghy, a rural village in County Donegal, Ireland, said the friend was “inconsolable” and crying as the man “shouted abuse at her and would not sit down”.
“Everybody was trying to get him to stop. There were kids on the plane and an elderly person. People were crying, they were so upset,” Wilson told the outlet.
He said he decided to intervene and stood in front of the 220-pound man. He told him, ‘Nobody gets touched on this plane.’
He said staff eventually managed to get the man out of his seat and sit him in the back of the plane, but the man then returned.
“(He) got into a fight with one of the other men. He pushed his head hard against another man’s head, so hard that the other man fell over,” the Irishman said.
“I’m not a security guard, I was a passenger on a plane,” Wilson said of his intervention, adding that he had to become “an air security guard” to “get the situation under control.”
Mr Wilson said the in-flight ordeal lasted for about an hour, and said it was incredible that the man was allowed to get off the plane when it landed in Lanzarote without being arrested.
But Mr Wilson said he saw two men beat the crazed passenger, leaving the passenger with a bandage on his head and broken ribs.
Other passengers thanked the 52-year-old for stepping in, including the man’s girlfriend.
Ryanair said in a statement: “Two passengers on this flight from Manchester to Lanzarote (1 July) caused disruption during the flight.
The crew defused the situation and moved one of the disruptive passengers to the other side of the aircraft for the remainder of the flight. The aircraft landed as planned in Lanzarote without further disruption.
Mr Wilson said the in-flight ordeal lasted for about an hour. He said it was incredible the man was allowed to get off the plane when it landed in Lanzarote without being arrested (file photo)
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the unruly behavior of these passengers.”
The spokesperson added: ‘Ryanair is pleased to support this statement from the Irish aviation industry to combat unwanted passenger behaviour on aircraft.
‘The safety and wellbeing of our crew and passengers is Ryanair’s number one priority and we work to eliminate inappropriate behaviour on board our aircraft.
‘We continue to work closely with An Garda Síochána, the IAA, Irish Airports and the wider aviation industry to eradicate all forms of undesirable behaviour in airport terminals and on board our aircraft.’
It is reported that the crew on board did not see passengers consuming their own alcohol or vaping, as Mr Wilson alleged.